To a Young Minister and His Wife
279
wishes to others, you would carry matters out in your own rash way.
You have felt that you were fully competent to think and act for your-
self independently. The truth of God has been accepted and loved by
you and has done much for you, but it has not wrought all that trans-
formation necessary for the perfection of Christian character. When
you first started out to labor in the cause of God you felt more humble
and were willing to be advised and counseled. But as you began to be
successful in a degree, your self-confidence increased, and you were
less humble and became more independent.
As you looked at the work of Brother and Sister White you thought
that you could see where you could have done better than they. Feelings
have been cherished in your heart against them. You were naturally
skeptical, infidel, in your feelings. As you have seen their work,
and heard the reproofs given to those who were wrong, you have
questioned how you would bear such plain testimony. You decided
that you could not receive it, and began to brace yourself against the
manner of their laboring, and thus opened a door in your heart for
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suspicion, doubt, and jealousy of them and their work.
You became prejudiced in your feelings against their labor. You
watched, and listened, and gathered up all you could, and surmised
much. Because God had given you a measure of success, you began
to place your short experience and labors upon a level with Brother
White’s labors. You flattered yourself that, were you in his place,
you could do very much better than he. You began to grow large in
your own eyes. You thought your knowledge far more extensive and
valuable than it was. Had you had one-hundredth part of the experience
in real labor, care, perplexity, and burden bearing in this cause that
Brother White has had, you would be better able to understand his
work and be better prepared to sympathize with him in his labors,
rather than to murmur and be suspicious and jealous of him.
In regard to your own post of labor you should be very jealous of
yourself lest you fail to do your work to God’s acceptance, and lest
you fail to honor the cause of truth in your labors. You should, in
humiliation of soul, feel: “Who is sufficient for these things?” The
reason why both of you are so ready to question and surmise in regard
to Brother White’s work is because you know so little about it. So few
real burdens have ever pressed upon your souls, so little real anguish
for the cause of God has touched your hearts, so little perplexity and